We Hid Bitcoin in No Man’s Sky

Released in 2016, No Man’s Sky boasts one of the largest video game maps in existence, housing over 18 quintillion planets. If you were to begin flying across the entire map right now, odds are you wouldn’t complete your journey in your lifetime. The idea behind the game is simply incredible…but unfortunately when it first debuted it flopped. Why? There simply wasn’t enough to do.

As it turns out, being alone among the stars (18 quintillion stars) wasn’t nearly as entertaining as one may have thought. But just this year, things have improved. On July 24th, the No Man’s Sky team released a massive upgrade that added more life, more building options, and perhaps most importantly a multiplayer option. I love it. I also love crypto…which brings me to the point of this post.

Yesterday, I stumbled across the following Twitter poll by Ari Paul:

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There's currently probably less than 1 million daily active users of cryptocurrency (if we exclude pure speculation and passive hodling.) Which use case will first take us over 10 million active daily users?

 — @AriDavidPaul

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As you can see the winner was Remittances & P2P payment, but I voted for Gaming & Collectables, primarily because of the insane audience that makes up the gaming community (for more on this, see my article here). That got me thinking…how can I help spread the adoption of crypto among gamers? One fun solution that presented itself was hiding Bitcoin in video games.

And so our quest begins…

My brother and I decided to use the vast and unexplored planets of No Man’s Sky to hide Bitcoin. Currently, we have 0.004 BTC (worth $30 at time of writing) hidden on two planets in the Endanko System, just waiting to be discovered. If you find the corresponding Communications Stations (pictured above and below), the Bitcoin is yours! There is a Comms Station on every planet in the system…only two have portions of the seed, and they are labeled so you’ll know the order.

While we’re by no means wealthy, and we’re the furthest thing from a cryptographic Bitcoin artist (major hat tip to YT), we hope that our Bitcoin bounty will encourage gamers and crypto-enthusiasts alike to come together in solidarity.

It’s not difficult to imagine a future where gaming becomes a global industry built on cryptocurrency (something like Ready Player One, maybe?), but it will take pioneers. It is our desire to encourage people in that direction.

This is the second of two Comms Stations holding the seed to 0.004 BTC

There is only one GingersBounty available at the moment, but we expect to add more very soon. Not only to No Man’s Sky, but potentially any other video game that allows us to hide wallet seeds (if you have any suggestions, leave a comment!).

We’ve created a subreddit (r/GingersBitcoinBounty) where you can interact with us, chat with other Bitcoin Bounty Hunters, and share clues to future bounties.

Happy hunting, everyone!

P.S. If you’d like to keep track of whether or not the bounty has been found, you can watch the address here.

P.P.S Thanks to our friends at SpacePirate Games, the bounty is now up to approximately $200 in value! You can see the altcoin balance of our wallet here.

Burnt out from hunting for our Bitcoin, but still want to get in the crypto game?The easiest way to begin is with Coinbase. Get $10 of free Bitcoin when you use this link — it’s my referral link — and get started now!

We Hid Bitcoin in No Man’s Sky was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.